


Planting Seeds In A Garden You Never Get To See

by metaphasia



Category: Hikaru no Go
Genre: Gen, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-03
Updated: 2018-07-03
Packaged: 2019-06-01 15:16:53
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,106
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15145943
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/metaphasia/pseuds/metaphasia
Summary: Hikaru had once seen a quote in a framed picture; "We don't stop playing because we grow old, we grow old because we stop playing". He had bought it immediately and given it to Akira as a gift on his next birthday. His own philosophy was a little different; Hikaru didn't mind the growing old, and looked forward to it, even, as long as he got to keep playing with Akira.





	Planting Seeds In A Garden You Never Get To See

**Author's Note:**

  * For [izayoi_no_mikoto](https://archiveofourown.org/users/izayoi_no_mikoto/gifts).



Hikaru stared out at the crowd as he clacked the magnetic tiles against the whiteboard in front of him.

“So, as you can see, when your formation is in the position we call _atari_ , it does not matter how many moves you make to try to escape, it will always be vulnerable to capture as long as your opponent pursues it,” he continued with his lecture, alternating black and white tiles against the board at the front of the classroom as he spoke.

The students in his class stared at him with rapt attention, and for a moment, he was lost in thought as he remembered when he was as new to Go as his class was. He had been in a room very similar to this one, and he had been very similar in age to them as well. It was hard to imagine ever having been as small as the children he was teaching now, but that period in his life was very firmly imprinted on his memory.

After he finished his lecture, he began circulating around the room, observing the more talented students and making a few suggestions to them, and playing brief demonstration games against the newer students. As the class ended, and the waiting adults in the reception area proceeded to pick up their children, one of them remained sitting while the room cleared. Once everyone else had left, the short man finally stood up, dusting off his kimono and walked across the room, meeting Hikaru halfway.

The two sat down at the Go table between them in silence for a moment, before beginning to nigiri. As he placed his first stone, Akira finally spoke.

“I have a new theory,” he said, his soft eyes shining through his long hair. “My father was secretly training when he was away from home as a way to shock me out of my stupor and spur me on to greater heights of playing Go.”

“I liked the earwig one you suggested last week,” Hikaru said, noncommitally.

“That's what you said about the 'Artificial Intelligence on the internet teaching you' theory last week,” Akira said.

“I did really like that one!” Hikaru said, his eyes lighting up and his face coming alive.

Somehow, this had become their unspoken tradition; whenever one of them was teaching a class at the Go Institute, or a convention, or anywhere, the other would wander over afterwards and they would play. That part wasn't so surprising, since Akira and Hikaru had been wandering their way over towards each other every chance they had since they both became pros, like there was a magnetic force pulling them towards each other.  _No_ , Hikaru thought,  _like gravity, just like they always knew which way was down, they knew which way was towards the other_ .

What was the surprising part, was how in the last year Akira had started to tell him crazy theories about how Hikaru might have managed to learn to play Go so well, and what the source of his hidden, inner strength was. Hikaru had never been able to find the words to talk about Sai, not to anyone; not Akira, or Waya, or Akari, or his parents or grandfather. By the time Sai had finally left him, Hikaru had been keeping the secret for so long that it had become habit, and the words would just get wrapped up in his throat in a tight ball whenever he considered voicing them. He was normally a very confident and headstrong person, not afraid to speak his mind, but he still broke out into a cold sweat at the idea of talking about Sai.

Akira had sensed this, somehow, the same way that they had such a strong bond. Hikaru thought it had something to do with the way they always had deep conversations over the Go board; it was like another channel of communication, a way to express emotions and feelings that would not come across in words.  _Defensiveness_ whispered the carefully placed stone buttressing a formation unnecessarily;  _truth_ , shouted the stone that shattered other constructions like a beacon shining forth.

Akira's solution to Hikaru's unwillingness to speak about Sai had borne the same elegance that he brought to everything else that he did; he had started telling Hikaru theories about what might have been. They had started off fairly tame, but gradually ramped up in ridiculousness as he explored the more plausible options and Hikaru's reactions guided him in the correct direction. Hikaru wasn't sure what he would do when Akira got desperate enough to eventually guess “the ghost of Honinbou Shusaku”, but he was certain Akira would know without a doubt that that one was correct, unlike all the others.

Like every Go match between them, this conversation gambit was a delicate game between them. Akira was limiting himself to one guess at a time, carefully planning out his theories, the same way that the two danced around the board covering the star points and filling in the spaces between. And, just like all their games, they were gradually moving into the end game, as Akira had started narrowing in on the truth, however insane it sounded to say out loud. And while that game may have still had farther to go, this one that they were playing was rapidly coming to a close as they began the delicate jockeying for positioning of the end game.

Hikaru was looking forward to that day; he and Akira had come so far since they had first met, both in terms of their abilities and careers, as well as their personal relationship with each other.

“I've been thinking about the Divine Move lately,” Hikaru said, his voice startling even him from the quiet that had descended over the table after their brief conversation at the start of the game.

Akira glanced up, startled. “What about it?” he asked, gamely.

“What if it's not just one game? What if it's played out across centuries, each person moving us a little bit closer; or rather, each life spent learning Go one move on a giant, cosmic board across time intead of space?” Hikaru asked, _earnestness_ , his stone declaring in accompaniment.

Akira paused for a moment considering. The two of them no longer played with timers with each, except in official matches, content that the time given to the other to think was not time wasted for themselves.

“I've always thought that, even if I didn't know the words to say it,” he finally said, finding the one perfect reciprocal response to Hikaru's last move. _Accord_ , it sang, and Hikaru's heart sang with it.

 


End file.
